A Sensible Proposal

July is the famine times for college football fans. The afterglow of bowl and NFL season leads into the March Madness. April through June bring the start of baseball season and the distraction of the NBA and NHL playoffs as well as the professional drafts. The past football season has faded (we lost in the Sugar Bowl?) and the hope that comes with a new season is still a mirage on the horizon. The preseason magazines are like a billboard for an oasis in the desert.

Water Ahead! Only Ten More Weeks!

But July is only baseball (sorry NASCAR, golf, and tennis have no interest for me) and next weekend is the absolute slowest weekend in sports when baseball turns to the All Star break and we don't even get a full slate of games. At this time of years, ESPN is basically hoping that Terrell Owens or Pacman Jones will feed the media beast with some story because otherwise they are just shouting down the well.

So what to do? I am a casual baseball fan and my interest only rises later in the season when the pennant races are heating up. I watch games in July, but only with a halfhearted interest.

Then it struck me - why not play the baseball playoffs in July and August? The most exciting time of the baseball season has to compete for attention with the two behemoths of American sport in September and August (college football and NFL). If MLB moved the playoffs to start in July, they would have the spotlight to themselves and the ratings of playoff games would go through the roof. In August, the only competition is the preseason football and training camps, but the baseball series would still be top dog. Finish the world series by Labor Day and baseball will at least own the summer.

But wait, Quixotehan, that would mean shortening the season by half. What of all the lost revenue?

The answer - start the next season the week after Labor Day. You can still play into November, but now the meaningless first half of the season is played in the fall, the players take a winter break and play resumes in the Spring in the midst of the pennant races. The diehards in the fall are in their season of new hope, so maybe people will even go to Devil Ray games again as they could be at the head of the division in late October. In the spring, the games are more meaningful and momentum builds until the playoffs.

Unconventional, yes. Inspired, absolutely. For providing this brilliant solution, I only ask for World Series tickets in perpetuity and 1% gross of April gate receipts. Or one year of A-Rod's salary.